Stewart spearheads development at Hayek's Ventanazul

Salma Hayek and MGM's recently launched joint venture Ventanazul has announced three key hires at the company.

Producer Annie Stewart, whose credits include Leaving Las Vegas and Cold Creek Manor, has been named vice president of development, while Lumumba Mosquera will head the company's legal and business affairs, and Juan Davila joins as director of development.

Stewart will be charged with bringing two to four projects to market per year under the Ventanazul name, with MGM handling worldwide marketing and distribution.

Davila will identify and develop feature film projects that have both worldwide appeal and hispanic elements.

Mosquera arrives from The Weinstein Company, where he served as senior vice president of business affairs for the Dimension Films division. Prior to that he was an Entertainment Department associate at the New York City office of national entertainment and communications law firm Loeb & Loeb.

'Development and legal and business affairs are the critical positions in spearheading Ventanazul's production commitment,' production president Jose Tamez said. 'We're eager to ramp up our production development and acquisitions, and with Annie, Lumumba and Juan on board, we look forward to announcing some exciting new projects for Ventanazul shortly.'

Last month Ventanazul boarded its first project, a time-travel romantic comedy by Chilean film-maker Nicolas Lopez that is expected to go into production next spring and according to reports is budgeted in the $15m range.

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